Trust
by Graysi
Summary: Cat's upset when Jade withdraws, after her and Beck break up. She stops answering her calls, she stops taking her to karaoke-dokey, she stops telling her anymore secrets. It's like they're done, all because Beck wouldn't open that damn door. So she explains to her clueless friends, why Jade has stopped trusting her. Bade. A lot of Cade friendship. Jandre/Jori friendship. One shot.


_Okay, listen. I don't know what this is. _  
_I just wanted a short one shot, explaining that Jade put all her trust in the fact that Beck would always be there for her, and now that he's not, she stops trusting everybody. That's all I wanted to say._  
_But it didn't work out well did it? I can't seem to write a descriptive piece without over-describing. I hate when a story has faceless extras, only there to ask questions, or to explain the situation to. I always feel the need to describe extras like hell. Anyway, sorry about this.  
I also have never seen The Worst Couple yet, so I'm just writing this with the assumption that this is what happens in it._  
_And I don't own Victorious._

* * *

Cat plunges her jaw into her open palms as Jade marches away from her, her hips swinging angrily and her fingers fidgeting by her side, as if she's playing the piano, like she does when she calms herself down. Like she does when she's trying to be happy. Or at least, when she's trying not to be sad.

"What's wrong, Little Red?" asks André, as he, Tori and Beck casually stride up to take her seat, appearing as if they're that beautiful Twilight trio, walking in sync, all with perfectly symmetrical faces and windswept hair.

"Jade keeps treating me differently now." She pouts, making Bella, Edward and Jacob wonder if she's had training in cuteness.

Her words especially catch Jacob's attention and he looks up from his coke and fries, which he was never 'allowed' to have before.

"How's she treating you different?" asks Beck, succeeding to hide his disappointment that Jade and he haven't even had a lunch together since the break-up. And he was really hoping today would be the day that he'd say "Hi", and she'd say "Hey", and things would go back to the way they were when they were friends all those years ago. Despite everything that was said, he _did_ miss her.

"She doesn't _tell_ me things anymore." Cat bats her eyelashes dejectedly at him, like she's asking him to make it better, and Beck can't remember the last time she looked _more_ like his little sister.

"What things won't she tell you?" probes André, frowning at the way her Bambi eyes stare forlornly at her strawberry-_only,_ fruit salad. He was never able to deal with when his Little Red cooked up a batch of the frownies.

"She doesn't tell me about any terrible singers she found on YouTube anymore. And she doesn't ask to me come over and laugh at them."

André laughs at the ritual that is just so…Jade, and though Beck knows he shouldn't react right now, he has to smile because really, it is just _Jade_ all over. Jade used to do that with him too. He remembers how he'd come back from his part time job and Jade would be waiting for him at the door of _his_ RV mind, still laughing and promising that this one was the worst one yet.

"It's okay Cat, you and me can do that when you come sleep over on Friday, okay?" consoles Tori, because Cat's not happy and of course, she can't _stand_ that. But Cat shakes her head and her bottom lip juts out further.

"But me and _Jade_ do it. And Jade makes me her special secret chocolate and strawberry mousse recipe, and _you_ can't do that." Tori hesitates while Beck frowns at the memory of the ever so sweet and smooth dessert he used to eat on Sunday evenings, but which he had long since forgotten about.

"_No, _I suppose I can't Cat, buuuut, I_ can _make you –"

"And also, when I sleep over at Jade's house, she reads a chapter of Jane Eyre to me before I go to bed, and she does the different voices and she explains what all the big words mean." Beck's head snaps up from his fries (that he knows he really _shouldn't_ be eating, even though _now_, he actually really _should_) when he hears of his carefully wrapped book he gave her when she was fifteen, that Jade could be seen reading again and again, sitting on the floor of his RV leaning against his legs and drinking a coffee.

"She read Jane Eyre to _you_?" voices André, not meaning to sound offensive, (even though he does) but it's not as if Cat realises.

"It's her favourite book. I wanted to hear it."

Her _favourite_ book? For some reason, Beck doesn't like the fact that Jade told Cat things. Probably because Jade told _him_ things, when it was windy and raining, when they would lie sleepily together on his bed, the TV buzzing softly in the background and his hand on her back like a vice, and she would whisper what new _'vacation to New York'_ would keep her father from going to see her play that day. Of course not now, obviously. But she did. She told him every one of her secrets. They're all flashing in his head now like millions of birds, taking off at once.

"She stopped taking me to karaoke-dokey on Fridays too. And she doesn't ring me to check up on how I'm getting on with learning my lines for Sikowitz's class. She doesn't even come to the phone when I call anymore... But it's okay, I talk to her little brother instead!"

"She makes you talk to her eight year old brother, instead of walking downstairs to answer the phone?" Disbelief is thick in Tori's tone.

"It's okay! We're friends. _He_ tells me Jade's things instead now. He tells me if Jade is in a bad mood and spends the _whole_ day playing the piano. He tells me if Jade gets the role in that play she was auditioning for. And he tells me about the _bad_ things that Jade's mommy did last week…_Jade_ didn't tell me" she mumbles, as a dejected afterthought.

"Mommy," "Jade" and "_bad things_" stir something in the trio and they freeze, concern etched on their faces. André looks worried, his signature expression when something bad happens to one of his 'girls' and his eyebrows crease into an anxious frown. Tori bites her lip, upset. Beck's expression doesn't change much and he doesn't even look at Cat, but his hand is frozen halfway from his mouth with no fry in his hand, and his eyes widen in unnoticed fear.

"What… exactly, did she do _now_ Cat?" he voices quietly, unable to keep_ all_ the worry from his voice.

Cat opens her mouth but just as quickly close it and smiles at him patronizingly.

"No no no, Beck! It's _Jade's_ secret." She wags a finger in his direction like she's his wise old auntie.

"Sure, but I still want to know if she's okay."

"But she doesn't want you to know that anymore does she?"

"Cat we're like sixteen years old. Even though we've broken up doesn't mean I don't c_are_ if –"

"She didn't _tell_ you what happened did she? So she doesn't want you to know. She's stopped telling you all her things now. Just like she's stopped telling me."

Her words cut something in him, as she threw the reality in his face that he had lost the privilege of knowing all Jade's 'things', as Cat put it. He loved knowing her _things_. It made him feel like the most important person in the world when she told him that her favourite colour was purple when everyone else who asked, got told it was black. Tori starts shaking her head kindly at Cat's words.

"Cat, I wouldn't take it personally. It's just Jade. I know you're her best friend but Jade isn't the type of person to let down her guard like that, and _tell_ people her secrets. Do you understand Cat? People like Jade don't like to do that. It's just not her way." She trails off when she notices that the gang is looking at her, almost in a pitying way, contradicting her.

"She tells me" objects Cat.

"See Tori, I think she just doesn't talk to _you_ in the same way." André explains. "Now,_ you_ shouldn't take it personally, it's just she… well she doesn't fully trust you. Yet. Y'know? It's just we've know her for longer see, that's why she trusts us. I mean, _Cat's_ the first person she goes to if her and Beck have a fight. Or _had_ I guess." Beck flinches. "And when her father visits every month, she'll make _me_ take her out to SeaWorld so she won't have to see him. And she tells _Beck_ everything, obviously. Or _told_." Another flinch. "Now Cat's brought it up, Jade and I actually haven't gone to SeaWorld in a while now."

"So… Jade stopped telling Beck her secrets because they broke up." Tori analyses. "But why would she stop telling _you_, Cat? And why would she avoid André?" Cat looked at her like it was simple.

"Because Beck and her broke up." Her tone makes it seem like a three year old would understand.

"No, Cat, not why isn't she talking to _Beck_," explains André in his kind way. "She means, why did she stop talking to _you?"_

"Because Beck and her broke up," she repeats, in the same obvious tone.

"What do you mean Cat?" Beck's getting curious, wanting to hear what that awful tabooed 'break-up' did to make Jade stop talking to her best friends.

"She doesn't tell me things because she broke up with Beck."

"But Cat, that makes no sense," patronises Tori.

"Yes it does! She doesn't tell me things anymore because she doesn't trust me anymore." Her expression is so heart-breaking, how can Tori not reach up to stroke her hair?

"But what have _you_ ever done to her? Why on _earth_ wouldn't she trust you Cat?"

"Because she doesn't trust Beck. And if she can't trust Beck, she can't trust anyone now. Not even even André. Not even me."

Everyone stares at Beck and he runs a hand through his hair like he does when he's stressed. He swallows.

"Are you serious Cat?" he speaks in a low rough monotone. If she _can't trust_ Beck, she can't trust anyone. If she can't trust_ Beck_, she can't trust anyone. _If she can't trust Beck, she can't trust anyone._

Cat nods slowly, worriedly, sensing his distress.

"She told me after you broke up. Jade said, that you _promised_ her, _every _day that you'd _never_ break up with her. And you told her you loved her _every_ day. So she told you all her things Beck. All the things that she loved, all the things that she hated, all the things that scared her. Because she trusted you. But then you went and broke her heart anyway. You let her down," she accused. Her words, her mannerism, her expressions, _right_ then, were uncannily like Jades, and André swore those words came directly from the mouth of Jade West.

Beck stares at her, his eyes like fire, as her words go round and round in his head like wasps, stinging him from inside out.  
She _trusted_ you. But then you went and broke her heart anyway. _You_ let her down. …you went and broke her heart anyway… you went and broke her heart… you _broke_ her _heart_.

"I wasn't lying when I told her I loved her Cat."

He _did_ love her. So much. He still does, but only because it's actually _impossible_ not to love her. ("You love me again." "Who said I stopped?") He would _never_ be able to stop, no matter how much he tried. But he doesn't voice this. Because on some level, he agrees with Cat's accusations. It didn't matter how bitter and angry and hard-to-be-around Jade had become. It didn't matter just how fucking much Beck loved her. In the end, he _did_, break all the promises he made. He broke every single one.

"You _did_ love her? Then why wouldn't you open the door then? That's all you had to do. Open a door."

"It wasn't as simple as that Cat. I was _so_ tired of fighting with her It's not what we used to be like."

"You broke your promises."

"Cat, I'm sorry. Look at me, Cat. Please –"

"You hurt her _real_ bad Beck. And now she won't tell me things. In case_ I_ hurt her real bad."

"Oh, that's not fair!" Tori protests when Cat's facial expression is sad enough to kill kittens. "She shouldn't treat Cat like this just because Beck… just because Beck and her aren't.. aren't together anym…." She falters when she sees Beck's hard expression.

Beck stares at her, almost urging her to continue. Doesn't she know it's _tabooed _to say_ 'not' together_?

"_Don't_ Tori." He sounds exasperated. And upset. But then he snapped.

"GOD, _DON'T_ TORI! Cat's _FUCKING_ right. The _worst_ thing that she was afraid of, _happened_. And I FUCKING _promised_ her, again and again and again, that it _NEVER_ would._** FUCK IT!**_"

Cat lets out a little squeal and André clamps his hands over her ears.

"Beck!" yells Tori.

"Oh. God, Cat, I'm sorry." He apologises. Sincerely.

As he gets up to hug her, Cat's face crumples and she gets up and runs away, calling Jade's name as she goes.

"_Fuck it_" hisses Beck and he leaps up to toss his untouched coke and fries in the bin. He doesn't even know why he got it in the first place. He didn't even want it. He _never_ wanted it.


End file.
